Mt. Helium

Quality 0.50 · 5 views · Updated 2 months ago

American rock band

title: "Mt. Helium" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["armenian-rock-music-groups", "musical-groups-from-los-angeles", "musical-groups-established-in-1999", "progressive-rock-musical-groups-from-california", "american-musical-trios", "1999-establishments-in-california", "american-alternative-metal-musical-groups", "nu-metal-musical-groups-from-california"] description: "American rock band" topic_path: "arts" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mt._Helium" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary American rock band ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox musical artist"]

FieldValue
nameMt. Helium
imageMt. Helium (The Apex Theory).jpg
landscapeyes
aliasThe Apex Theory (1999–2004)
originLos Angeles, California, U.S.
genre{{flatlist
years_active1999–2008
label
past_membersDavid Hakopyan
Art Karamian
Ontronik "Andy" Khachaturian
Sammy J. Watson
::

| name = Mt. Helium | image = Mt. Helium (The Apex Theory).jpg |landscape=yes | caption = | alias = The Apex Theory (1999–2004) | origin = Los Angeles, California, U.S. | genre = {{flatlist|

Mt. Helium, formerly known as the Apex Theory, was an American rock band from Los Angeles, California, that was known for playing Mediterranean music mixed with progressive rock. The band released three studio albums and three extended plays.

History

The Apex Theory was formed in 1999 by Armenian-American musicians Ontronik "Andy" Khachaturian, Art Karamian and David Hakopyan (first drummer and bass player of Soil / System of a Down respectively), following Khachaturian's injury and subsequent departure from System of a Down. Sammy J. Watson joined the band after they were unable to find a committed drummer. The band released its first extended play, Extendemo, in 2000. The following year, they signed with DreamWorks Records, releasing their second EP The Apex Theory on October 9, 2001. The band performed at the main stage during the 2001 Warped Tour, and as co-headliners at the 2002 MTV2 tour.

On April 2, 2002, the band released its first album, Topsy-Turvy. It peaked at No. 6 on the Billboard Heatseekers chart and No. 157 on the Billboard 200. Months after the album's release, Khachaturian left the band, and they began to audition new vocalists before deciding that Karamian would take over as the band's vocalist, shifting the band from a quartet to a power trio. The band released an EP in 2004 entitled inthatskyissomethingwatching. After changing the name to Mt. Helium, the band released its second album, Faces, as a digital download on June 3, 2008.

Musical style

Former vocalist Ontronik Khachaturian described the band's sound as a "heavy Mediterranean groove". The Michigan Daily writer Sonya Sutherland wrote, "The Apex Theory combines a heavy drum support, melodic guitars and honey sweet vocals to provide an entertaining and emotional message." The band's musical style was influenced by Mediterranean, Middle Eastern and Near Eastern music. PopMatters described Topsy-Turvy as "an energy-filled fusion of progressive and modern rock."

The MTV News writer Jon Wiederhorn wrote that "the Apex Theory's multi-textured music [...] combines metal, prog-rock, Mediterranean music and even jazz. And the off-kilter rhythm, skittering drums, whirlpool guitars and aggressive vocals of 'Shhh ... (Hope Diggy)' are a perfect taster for the band's debut album". Deseret News said that "Apex Theory's progressive punk mixed exotic music signatures with psychedelic rock". As The Apex Theory, they were also labelled nu metal.

Band members

  • David Hakopyan — bass guitar (1999–2008)
  • Art Karamian — guitar, vocals (1999–2008)
  • Ontronik "Andy" Khachaturian — vocals (1999–2002)
  • Sammy J. Watson — drums (1999–2008)

Timeline

ImageSize = width:800 height:auto barincrement:20 PlotArea = left:120 bottom:100 top:10 right:80 Alignbars = justify DateFormat = mm/dd/yyyy Period = from:01/01/1999 till:12/01/2008 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal format:yyyy Legend = orientation:vertical position:bottom columns:4 ScaleMajor = increment:2 start:1999 ScaleMinor = increment:1 start:1999

Colors = id:vocals value:red legend:Vocals id:backing value:pink legend:Backing_vocals id:guitar value:green legend:Guitar id:bass value:blue legend:Bass id:drums value:orange legend:Drums id:lines value:black legend:Studio_album id:EP value:gray(0.5) legend:EP

BarData =

bar:Ontronik text:"Ontronik Khachaturian" bar:Art text:"Art Karamian" bar:David text:"David Hakopyan" bar:Sammy text:"Sammy J. Watson"

LineData =

color:black layer:back at:04/02/2002 at:06/03/2008 color:EP at:10/09/2001 at:01/16/2007

PlotData = width:11

bar:Ontronik from:start till:12/01/2002 color:vocals

bar:Art from:start till:end color:guitar width:3 bar:Art from:start till:12/01/2002 color:backing width:3 bar:Art from:12/01/2002 till:end color:vocals bar:David from:start till:end color:bass

bar:Sammy from:start till:end color:drums

Discography

Albums

  • Topsy-Turvy (2002) (as The Apex Theory)
  • Faces (2008) (as Mt. Helium)

Extended plays

  • Extendemo (2000) (as The Apex Theory)
  • The Apex Theory (2001) (as The Apex Theory)
  • Inthatskyissomethingwatching (2004) (as The Apex Theory)
  • Lightpost (2007) (as The Apex Theory)

Promotional releases

  • Random Bursts (2001) (as The Apex Theory)

References

References

  1. Wilson, MacKenzie. "Biography of The Apex Theory". [[Allmusic]].
  2. Iannini, Tommaso. (2003). "Nu metal". Giunti.
  3. MacDonald, Patrick. (June 29, 2001). "''Punk rock and extreme sports collide at Vans Warped Tour''". [[The Seattle Times]].
  4. Burr, Ramiro. (September 7, 2002). "Apex Theory set for Ozzfest Quartet mixes hard rock, funk". [[San Antonio Express-News]].
  5. "Charts and awards for ''Topsy Turvy''". [[Allmusic]].
  6. (November 19, 2002). "For The Record: Quick News On Limp Bizkit, Wes Borland, Apex Theory, Coal Chamber, Rival Schools, Kiss & More". [[MTV News]].
  7. (April 26, 2004). "For The Record: Quick News On Mary J. Blige, Guided By Voices, Kid Rock, Elephant Man, Metallica, Billy Joel & More". [[MTV News]].
  8. "ASIN: B001A660KW".
  9. Sutherland, Sonya. (November 12, 2001). "World music collides in Apex Theory". [[Michigan Daily]].
  10. (January 14, 2003). "The Apex Theory: Topsy Turvy".
  11. Wiederhorn, Jon. (March 1, 2002). "Apex Theory Offer 'Hope' To Metal — Diggy-Da". [[MTV News]].
  12. Iwasaki, Scott. (March 18, 2002). "Adema emerges as Sno-Core favorite".
  13. Massey, Bob. (July 2002). "Noise live".
  14. Jenkins, Mark. (April 4, 2002). "THE APEX Theory "Topsy-Turvy"".

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::

armenian-rock-music-groupsmusical-groups-from-los-angelesmusical-groups-established-in-1999progressive-rock-musical-groups-from-californiaamerican-musical-trios1999-establishments-in-californiaamerican-alternative-metal-musical-groupsnu-metal-musical-groups-from-california